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Role Playing (Games)

World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Confirmed 139

Posted by Zonk from the for-quel'thelas dept.
The official site for the first World of Warcraft expansion: The Burning Crusade has been launched as BlizzCon kicks off. There you'll find screens, movies, and information about the upcoming expansion to one of the most popular MMOGs on the market. The site confirms several of the rumours currently on the internet about the game, including the fact that the Horde will be gaining the Blood Elves as a playable race. The new Alliance race is still up in the air. From the FAQ: "Q: What does the title of the World of Warcraft expansion refer to? A: "The Burning Crusade" refers to the Burning Legion's ongoing efforts to destroy life on Azeroth. To date, the Burning Legion's exploits have been documented in Warcraft III and in our War of the Ancients novel trilogy. As part of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, players will now be able to travel through the Dark Portal to confront the Legion on otherworldly battlefields." ScuttleMonkey is on the ground at Blizzcon, and should have some firsthand info for us this weekend about the happenings in California. Update: 10/28 20:44 GMT by Z : IGN has a rundown on the features and screens. Good stuff.
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World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Confirmed More

World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Confirmed

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  • When I read that title, my first thought was that some goup had decided that World of Warcraft was evil and that all copies of it should be burned.
  • Reminds me of the expansion pack for Warcraft II, blended with Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, tossed on top of WoW. Really, thats pretty sweet. Like to see how the stories form now...
    • Blizzard has done an awesome job of integrating the Warcraft stories into World of Warcraft. There is a quest on the Alliance side where you meet up with Jaina Proudmoore, who was a character in Warcraft III. If you play as the undead, you can see the entry to Undercity looks just like the throne room from the cut scenes in Warcraft III (where mad Prince Arthas assassinates his father). Mages have spells that rain down ice (like "Blizzard" in Warcraft II) and change enemies into sheep (just like "Polymorph"
      • If you play as the undead, you can see the entry to Undercity looks just like the throne room from the cut scenes in Warcraft III (where mad Prince Arthas assassinates his father).
        And in one of the coolest easter eggs of the game the sound of that entire cutscene plays in the background when you enter the throneroom. It is muffled and blends in well with the ambient music, but it is there.

  • Let the B*tching Begin (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dividedsky319 ( 907852 ) on Friday October 28, 2005 @11:47AM (#13897555)
    People are already complaining.

    Mostly about the level cap being raised to 70.

    Personally, I'm excited about that... I wasn't a fan of the endgame, and leveling was my source of fun. Once I reached the cap, I didn't care about getting uber gear or anything like that. Sure, I'll reach 70 eventually as well, but 10 more levels of content is exciting to me...

    People will complain about anything, won't they? (Especially when it comes to MMORPG gamers)
    • People are already complaining.

      Mostly about the level cap being raised to 70.

      Personally, I'm excited about that... I wasn't a fan of the endgame, and leveling was my source of fun. Once I reached the cap, I didn't care about getting uber gear or anything like that. Sure, I'll reach 70 eventually as well, but 10 more levels of content is exciting to me...

      People will complain about anything, won't they? (Especially when it comes to MMORPG gamers)

      I won't complain about being able to gain another 10 levels eit

      • Re:Let the B*tching Begin (Score:5, Insightful)

        by dividedsky319 ( 907852 ) on Friday October 28, 2005 @12:19PM (#13897897)
        I won't complain about being able to gain another 10 levels either.

        It seems like the majority of people on the forums are complaining because they've "worked so hard" to get epic items for their level 60 character, and that a green lvl 70 item will be better than their epic item.

        But, I mean, come on... gaming is about fun, not about accomplishment. This "I'm l33ter than you becuase I have a purple weapon" has gotten out of control. (Besides, the epic items out now have an "item level" that's >60 anyway... so don't wet yourself, your epic item is still "better")

        To the complainer, I say this... you worked so hard to get your items... What, did you think you had to do that once, then you were the coolest person in the game... forever? The game is going to expand, to change, and you're going to have to continue to play... isn't that a good thing?

        Really, the source of the complaining is that it kicks their "l33tness" down a notch. Suddenly someone is level 61 and they're only 60, oh noes! The world is over!

        A word of advice: Stop taking it so seriously and just have fun

      • I don't like the level cap raise. I get my fun from challenging (preferably non-raid) instances, PvP, quests, etc. Having to grind 10 more levels just because isn't my idea of fun. Leveling is something you do to get to the fun, it should be as short as possible (non-existant is preferable).

        Its also going to totally FUBAR the skill trees. 10 more talent points. My shaman is now a 37/0/24 build. An instacast heal or lightning every 3 minutes and a garunteed crit every 5. Yeah, thats not imbalanced. B
        • Okay, so you get your fun from challenging instances, PvP, and quests. So how does raising the level cap change this at all? Just keeping doing those instances, quests, and PvPing. I assume you've been ignoring the XP bar since level 60; just keep ignoring it. Why does the availability of more experience mean that you have to start grinding? Just have fun. As for the skill trees, it is mentioned that there will be new skills available for those above level 60. I am assuming that the new skills will be over
          • It changes it because I have to spend another couple weeks->months leveling to get those last 10 levels. And yes, you do *have* to get them, if you don't you will be totally owned at PvP. So now I need to spend large amounts of time doing something I find mind numbingly boring, in order to go back to the fun stuff.

            • Re:Let the B*tching Begin (Score:4, Insightful)

              by Thorkytel Ant-Head ( 593092 ) on Friday October 28, 2005 @01:03PM (#13898326)
              No, you don't have to get them. It's a game. Have fun. Plenty of people enjoy the game even before level 60. Maybe getting "totally owned at PvP" shouldn't be your only concern in the game. Your main concern should be having fun.

              But it seems to me that you're so concerned about the game, that you're not enjoying it anymore. Sounds like a self-repairing problem, if you ask me: Either quit playing the game out of frustration, or get over the "need" to level up without enjoying it.
              • Yes, I do. My greatest sourse of fun in the game is PvP. If there was no PvP, I would not have bought the gaame. When I PvP, I like to win a decent percentage of the time- losing constantly isn't fun. If I don't get the levels, I will lose constantly (while a 1-2 level difference isn't much, a 10 is huge). So if I want to PvP, I need to get the levels. My choices are grind, or quit.

                And there's a third option here- complain my fucking ass off. I'm a paying customer, the same as you are. I do *NOT* w

                • Re:Let the B*tching Begin (Score:4, Interesting)

                  by Thorkytel Ant-Head ( 593092 ) on Friday October 28, 2005 @01:34PM (#13898554)
                  Great, so you enjoy the PvP. So do I. You may find this hard to believe, but I actually have fun in PvP, even when I'm >gasp
                  And again, I am puzzled by your repeated claims that this is a casual, low-grind game. It is a casual, low-grind game. It's low-grind because you can do quests and play the game and still make progress in levels and abilities, not because you can hurry up and get to level 60 and then forget about experience altogether. That's not low-grind; that's front-loaded grind. That's you saying, "I hate grinding, and I hate games that force you to grind. Therefore, I am going to grind as much as I can, so I can level up quickly and get to a point where I don't have to worry about grinding anymore." It seems like your logic is hopelessly flawed in that respect.

                  And your attitude about bait-and-switch tactics is priceless. "Hey Blizzard! I expected the game to stay as it is, with only minor content changes, and preferably none at all! But instead, here you are creating new content, new skills, new talents and abilities, new characters, new realms to explore, new quests, new enemies, and new avenues of enjoyment that will satisfy me for years to come! Of course I'm upset!"

                  If you want a game that will stay the same forever, go buy a standard RPG. Blizzard always advertised World of Warcraft as a world that would be constantly changing and improving and expanding. People have been complaining for ages that Blizzard isn't introducing enough new content quickly enough...and here you are complaining that they are changing it too much? Like I said...priceless.
                  • I'm not complaining about new content. Instances, areas, quests- bring them on. Levels are not content. Levels are a grind. Its something devs throw in because they can't think of any real content to add, so they try to slow down your content consumption. They're proof of an incompetent dev team.
                    • It'd be a hell of a lot more fun. Leveling does not give a sense of accomplishment. Why not? Because leveling in and of itself is not worth accomplishing. A trained monkey could hit 60, given enough time. It was never in doubt that I could do it, if I had the patience. When I lost 80 pounds, that was an accomplishment. Max level in a video game? Nope.

                      And the "not earning it" line is bs anyway. In real life, if a friend buys you dinner does it taste bad? I mean, you didn't earn it. IOf course it d
                    • Leveling does not give a sense of accomplishment. Why not? Because leveling in and of itself is not worth accomplishing. It's as "worth accomplishing"as anything else in the game. What's your purpose in playing the game? Getting loot? Exploring interesting lands? Defeating epic monsters? Raiding fantastic monsters? All of those are made easier by leveling. Leveling allows you to access more of the higher-end content of the game, and in that sense, it is definitely worth accomplishing. It was never in doub
                    • Surely you are in the minority here. I think your "substantial" group of people who think like you is not as substantial as you think. This is a MMORPG first and foremost, it's the genre. It has RPG elements, and it's not Quake. It has leveling, it will always have leveling and no amount of complaining will stop WoW from having leveling. You can buy gold all you want, but most people will not. It's not "only the ex-EQ" group who plays to achieve "arbitrary" goals. I think somewhere along the line, you got y
                • For you, the game starts at 60. For me, the game ends at 60. Getting there is the game. Being there sucks. Adding 10 more levels of content is awesome and highly anticipated. I don't like PvP, there is nothing about it that is fun. Grouping up with friends and questing is the fun part. Playing rock/paper/scissors over and over again isn't fun, and that is what PvP is to me.

                  If they build it for you, they lose me. If they build it for me, they lose you. I have a feeling that they will do as they planned to do

              • No, you don't have to get them. It's a game. Have fun. Plenty of people enjoy the game even before level 60. Maybe getting "totally owned at PvP" shouldn't be your only concern in the game. Your main concern should be having fun.

                Pardon me, but you seem to be missing a point about the level cap raise... Different people enjoy different things, and the grandparent gets the most fun out of the game by competing head-to-head with other players. However, after the level cap raise that option is no longer av

        • Its also going to totally FUBAR the skill trees. 10 more talent points. My shaman is now a 37/0/24 build. An instacast heal or lightning every 3 minutes and a garunteed crit every 5. Yeah, thats not imbalanced. Being able to get a 31 point talent in 1 tree and a 21 pointer in a second is not good- the game wasn't balanced around it.

          Balance isn't about the amount of power/skills you have. It's about making sure that everyone has the same amount of power/skills available to them. Would it imbalance the game i
          • No, balance is very much about what skills you have. In PvE, you want to make sure everyone is useful, at least in some subset of situations. In PvP, the far more important thing to me, you need to make sure that the skills one person gets doesn't make it too strong compared to other classes. 10 more talents would be bad for PvE but you could work around it. It would completely destroy PvP balance. It allows new combos of skills to be used that give some classes huge advantages, and will turn a lot of

        • Re:Let the B*tching Begin (Score:4, Interesting)

          by dividedsky319 ( 907852 ) on Friday October 28, 2005 @12:47PM (#13898185)
          Leveling is something you do to get to the fun, it should be as short as possible (non-existant is preferable).

          See, different strokes for different folks. Once I hit the level cap of 60, I didn't really care about playing anymore. What's the point of doing instances, PvP, quests, etc? To have a small percentage chance that you could get a new weapon? That's BORING to me. Leveling gave me a sense of progression. I hit 60, I got bored, I quit. (This was back in March that I quit... played from November to March. However, I joined again last week and started a new character)

          Its also going to totally FUBAR the skill trees. 10 more talent points.

          I highly doubt they'll just give out 10 more talent points and leave the trees as they are now. Blizzard isn't that stupid, they know how much this would imbalance things. They'll either add more talents, or give no talent points >60.

          • Sense of progression? I can't see how that alone would be fun to anyone. SO you level and grind to 60 why? If you're not going to enjoy the content at 60, the entire grinding is a waste of time.

            The problem is this- if I like to PvP, instance, etc it does not effect your fun. You can play on a PvE server (or even a PvP) and do your thing. Raising the level cap *does* effect my gameplay- I now have to get 10 more levels to do anything.

            If you want a progression game, go play EQ or FFXI. Or Lineage or t
            • SO you level and grind to 60 why? If you're not going to enjoy the content at 60, the entire grinding is a waste of time.

              Um... I "grinded" (actually, I didn't grind, I simply "played") becuase I enjoyed the content. I liked the quests. I liked going out hunting and earning gold and xp. Then once I hit 60, I couldn't do that anymore (xp, at least). How exactly is that a waste of time? I even stated that I recently started playing again, and started a new character. I enjoy 1-60 more than being level

              • The purpose of a MMORPG is about progression and developing your character, not about getting to a certain number so the "real" game begins.

                No, its not. The purpose of an MMORPG is to play a fantasy based game in an MMO environment. EQ brought the idea of progression being everything, before that Ultima and its ilk had very little progression.

                And yes, even EQ was very much grind to cap to start the real game. The real game of EQ, boring as it was, was raiding. YOu had ot be at or near cap to do that. T

                • The purpose of an MMORPG is to play a fantasy based game in an MMO environment.

                  Right. But, everyone plays their own character. They're their own entity. They have personalities, as well as a level.

                  I guess I just see WoW as more than just a "game". I used to play Gemstone III, a text based MUD. When you were playing, you ONLY spoke of things in game. You don't mention the word "game" unless it was a game you were playing in character. You don't mention "xp til level" becuase that was OOC (out of c

                • No, its not. The purpose of an MMORPG is to play a fantasy based game in an MMO environment. EQ brought the idea of progression being everything, before that Ultima and its ilk had very little progression.

                  Actually Ultima had quite a bit of progression only it wasn't in the levels we now know. Then it was fight more to get better strength so that you can fight better people, and be more powerful than the PK's. Or it was cast spells to get better intelligence so that you can cast higher level spells. I
                • Dude quit whining about PVP. I routinly go into Arathi Basin as a lvl 40, fighting against lots of 49s, and I'm still effective. Myself and my roommates are 40, 42, and 43. We've run into parties of 5 guys 35-49, with at least 3 over 45 and kicked their asses. With good teamwork you don't have to be the highest level.
                • Comment removed based on user account deletion
              • Uh, if the game isn't supposed to start at 60 then how come all the raid content requires level 60? How come they are adding more raid content? How come there will be a ton of level 70 raid dungeons after the expansion comes out? It seems like you people who play from 1-60 and then quit the next day are the ones playing the wrong game. WoW was even advertised and hyped up as the MMO that started when you reached max level.

                No I don't hard grind my characters to 60. I enjoy doing quests and instances and the

                • Re:Let the B*tching Begin (Score:4, Insightful)

                  by snuf23 ( 182335 ) on Friday October 28, 2005 @03:58PM (#13899776)
                  Seeing as the release date hasn't even been announced... don't you think you might be a bit bored of running BWL, ZG and MC by then? Maybe looking for some fresh new dungeons? New content? High end 60+ quests in the new zone? Not to mention that it will get easier to get everyone in your guild their 60 level epic gear with a team of 61+ in the high end raids.
                  I don't know about you but I'm kind of getting bored of running the same dungeons over and over again. I mean yeah it's great to make progression through them at the high end, but sometimes it just seems pointless and repetitive.
                  • Add new content by all means. But they don't need to include more levels. Make the new content level 60 content, and keep the level cap as is.
                    • By increasing the level cap they make the current high end content more accessible to less hardcore players and smaller guilds. So effectively they make this stuff "more casual" and push the high end guilds on to new challenges.
                      I mean if you got XP for all that running through MC or whatever I'm sure you'd roll through the levels pretty quick.
                    • You don't get ANY XP from MC. Ask a 59 who's been there. Divide by 40, then add the 50% penalty for being in a raid, and you're looking at 14xp per mob.

                      And do you consider leveling to 50 making scarlet monestary "more accessible"? No, it makes it trivial, unchallenging, boring, and unfun.
                    • Well then do ZG - half the size of an MC raid.
                      Scarlet Monestary is a 5 man instance from the start. I do consider doing a 5 man Scholo, Strath or LBRS more challenging than a 10 man. I've done UBRS in 8 man and it required much more coordination than doing it in 15.
            • And if you're not going to enjoy the process of playing the game, then the entire game is a waste of time. If you didn't have fun until you got to level 60, then I honestly don't know how you got that far. You must have a masochistic streak to spend hundreds of hours not having fun, just so you can get to level 60 and start enjoying the game.

              And saying, "I now have to get 10 more levels to do anything" is a complete strawman. How does raising the level cap affect one bit the things you can do now? You wil
    • ...that all the experience you could have gotten after hitting 60 (especially doing high end quests and whatnot) might be able to put you at level 62 or 63 at this point (depending on how long you've been 60) instead of being wasted. It would be really cool though, if Blizzard had kept track of all the XP players got beyond 60 and awarded it. I doubt that will happen though.
    • The reason for the complaint is valid, and it has to do with their existing itemization system.

      Currently, the best items in the game are required level 60 epic items. By being epic quality over superior quality, the amount of stats available on the item is increased by a certain amount. Up until 60, the "item level" is usually 5 levels above the "required level" to equip the item. After 60, however, you see item levels as high as 83 on drops from Nefarian, currently the hardest boss in the game. So logicall
      • They wanted getting to level 60 to be the start of the game, not the end. Raising the level cap goes against this

        Then they need to have some other type of incentive for running instances or going on raids. The small chance a drop that you can use will drop, and that you'll get the high roll, isn't worth the time or effort.

      • Your average blue drop from a level 70 5 man dungeon will be an item level 75 superior item.

        Could you provide an example of this? Just name the level 70 dungeon, and one of the level 75 superior drops.

        ...

        What? You can't name one? Oh, you mean there actually aren't any level 70 dungeons yet? So basically, you're making complete speculation, and then using that as the basis for criticism. Hey, maybe a level 70 dungeon will drop level 95 Legendary items. Maybe they'll only drop greens. Maybe each crea
        • Could you provide an example of this? Just name the level 70 dungeon, and one of the level 75 superior drops.

          I said "currently". I never said this couldn't change. I never said their item level model wouldn't change. I just said according to the current system.

          So what will change when the level cap is raised? Nothing.

          That was part of my point. It's an arbitrary and artificial change. People who are raiders who are level 60 will reach 70 in under a month. It's a roadbump. It's trivial. There was no reason t
      • It's as if thousands of e-peens cried out and were suddenly silenced. It's just gear, it's deprecated every time a new raid instance comes out. BWL and ZG loot negates MC loot. The upcoming Silithus dungeon loot will negate the BWL/ZG loot. Another dungeon will negate that. And the expansion will negate all of it. Typical MMO progression. No real shocker.

        And it's not like people are somehow better just because they can get 40 people together to do the high end content every week. That attitude bli
        • Did you even read my post? If you can just keep doing MC and fighting mobs who are 10 levels lower (giving you massive resist and chance to hit bonuses, and stat bonuses and spell levels way beyond what was intended for the dungeon) and keep dropping better items than level appropriate dungeons, then that's a problem for the game. No one will have any incentive to do harder dugeons for lesser rewards.
  • How are MMORPG expansions handled? What happens to the people who decide not to buy it?

    • Re:How are MMORPG expansions handled? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Surye ( 580125 ) <surye80@NOsPaM.gmail.com> on Friday October 28, 2005 @11:58AM (#13897674) Homepage
      Q: Do you need to own the expansion to play with friends who have it?
      A: There will be many aspects of the expansion that are available to all players. However, in order to experience certain content, such as the Outlands, or be able to play as one of the new races, players will have to purchase the expansion.

      RTFA?
    • When I played Ultima Online way back, they handled expansions mostly by introducing new lands, which you had to get to via some type of portal. Those portals would only be active for those who purchased the expansion and upgraded their account (no extra charge) on the game website. Sometimes that included new artwork for the new expansion items, so the non-expansion players could still see them. (Usually when an expansion came out, there was a patch to the non-expansion clients with the artwork.) New creatu
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • The blood elves? Oh bilzzard how could you? They just had to "pretty up" the hoard didn't they... Personally I would have liked to have been able to play as the burning legion... hated and against both factions (Hoard and alliance) they could have been a cool addition... but then most people just call me an idiot and tell me to "Shutta the hell up". Other than that the new expansion looks amazing and I can't wait for it to come out!
    • Personally, I think it'd kill even more of the Warcraft flavor if you could play as the Burning Legion. I mean, it's bad enough that you have proud orc warriors going "cna u spair sum gold plx???", I don't want to see newbie demons running away from level 2 scorpions.

      And curse them for giving the Horde blood elves. It's the lack of a pretty horde race that keeps most of the twelve year olds on the Alliance.

      • Enh, I think it's fine. Give the Horde a pretty race...maybe it'll even up the balance of players a bit. I imagine that most younglings will still flock to the Alliance though. Everyone wants to be Aragorn, and no one wants to be Orc With Sword Through Neck.
        • I went Alliance because I like dwarves. Played dwarves in AD&D, Shadowrun and now WoW.

          Haven't gotten into Horde, not sure why, guess I don't like thier starting areas much at all.
    • It's horde , not hoard, you dolt.
    • Yeah I think they are trying to give the horde a pretty race to attract more people. I also wouldn't be surprised if the Alliance gets Pandarens as a counterpoint to the fuzzy Taurens.

  • Memoirs of an ex-WOW-addict (Score:3, Insightful)

    by bradbeattie ( 908320 ) <bradbeattie&alumni,uwaterloo,ca> on Friday October 28, 2005 @12:08PM (#13897788) Homepage Journal
    I remember when I first started playing World of Warcraft. Everything was brand new and exciting. There was a sense of adventure and exploration that justified the hours I put into that game. Some friends and I even started up our own guild and we had a blast. The game was fun. Problem was, that sense of novelty eventually wore off. All that was left was repetative questing and grinding for XP to reach the ultimate goal of level 60. After weeks of sleepless nights, I finally made it. I stood on top of the XP mountain and felt accomplished, but it's cold at the top and I wondered what was left for me. In the following weeks, I got bored enough to walk away from WoW and cancel my subscription. I didn't much want to play when I first started and somewhat hated myself in that long stretch from 30 to 60. So that freedom was relieving. Now that I'm free, do I really want to start that process over again? Knowing what I know now, why would I subject myself to such a time-sink that ultimately provided me with little entertainment? I think I'm going to steer clear of this expansion. Besides, City of Villains is coming out soon. (I kid, I kid)

    • Re:Memoirs of an ex-WOW-addict (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Thorkytel Ant-Head ( 593092 ) on Friday October 28, 2005 @12:20PM (#13897905)
      You know, I used to be like you. I went through a period of time when I was just grinding away, staying up late to complete one more quest, then running back to turn it in, then heading to the capital city to buy more spells and abilities...and yeah, I eventually got burnt out. But then, you know what I realized?

      I realized that I can stop playing for a while, then come back later, and the quests and the world will still be there.

      Personally, I've had much more fun logging on less frequently, feeling like I've accomplished something, and then logging off. I have no desire to get burned out on the game, and I realized that reaching level 60 isn't the goal. Ultimately, the goal is to have fun playing the game. If your only goal is to get to 60, then you're sure to be disappointed when you get there, because it feels a lot like 59. But if you take your time and have fun playing, then level 60 will just be another opportunity to find some new dungeons, new quests, and new items. Moderation in all things. The journey is its own reward.
      • This is perhaps the most eloquent post I have ever read in regards to describing what is wrong with the MMORPG mentality.

        I love playing WoW; however, I have balance my play time my real life. I have a job that requires my attention and I'm a rather athletic person, so I need time away from the office and away from my home PC to exercise at the gym or find a pickup game of one sport or another. On top of this, I have recently started taking advanced technical courses in order to educate myself further

    • Re:Memoirs of an ex-WOW-addict (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Gulthek ( 12570 ) on Friday October 28, 2005 @12:47PM (#13898177) Homepage Journal
      Why was level 60 the goal? Was the fun of the game not merit enough?

      Is the point of a piece of music to reach the finale?

      When you dance is it to arrive at a particular spot on the floor at the end?
      • Why was level 60 the goal? Was the fun of the game not merit enough?

        I think part of what makes games like this interesting is how they capitalize on our goal/reward system. They try to find the spot where you have a tangible goal, which is just difficult to be totally engaging - not too difficult to be frustrating, and not too easy to be boring. This is what humans apparently want to do, we find it immensely rewarding. (See Csikszentmihalyi's idea of flow [apa.org] for some good theory and research about this).
        • I recently started playing w.o.w., but one of the things that impresses me about it is that they way it acheives the appropriate level of challenge is by leaving many levels of challenge open for the player to find the right one. Rather than trying to predict exactly how difficult each task needs to be, the player naturally finds the tasks that are at the right level. There are goals and sub-goals, rewards little and small, all aimed at giving you opportunities to engage yourself.

          This is really what's great
      • I think that part of it was me not liking the game, but finding myself addicted. I'd heard that interest wanes after reaching 60, so I rushed to reach that goal. At least, that was the idea. Turns out I was just addicted.
    • I had a friend do the same pattern.

      He came back when I joined WoW (9 months after release) for some mad PvP action.

      Good times. Don't want to be bored? Get a few friends and make alliance alts. Twink yourselves up, and hit 20-29 PvP (or the 60s which run more but I'm not that high yet, but my 29 horde shaman has hit where he needs to).

      Heck, even 10-19 WSG runs nightly.
  • Anyone got any idea of what the alliance new race could be?

    My memories of the previous games ar ekind of rusty, but I can't think of any other than the elves, humans, etc, that are already in the game.
    • Possibly Pandaren, but I hope not.... Pandas seem like a pretty weak idea for a race.
      • Wasnt the pandaren a joke for aprils fools? I doubt those count.

        • Wasnt the pandaren a joke for aprils fools? I doubt those count.

          There is a Panda hero in Warcraft 3. I think it started out as a joke, but turned out to be real -- sort of like the secret cow level in Diablo 2.

          • I also saw zergs in Warcraft 3. I doubt that means they became part of the Warcraft world.
            • The Pandaren are available at two points in W3:TFT. One is during the standard campaign, as a bonus for completing a hidden level. Much like the zerg, a hidden bonus. Easily argued to not be a 'part of the lore.'

              The second time was in the quasi-RPG Orc campaign, where it was one of the members of your small party. Definitely not a 'hidden bonus.' Like it or not, Pandaren as of The Frozen Throne are definitely a part of the Warcraft Universe 'for real.' Shoot, there's even a quest that references th
            • There are zerglings in World of Warcraft. If you had a beta account, you could get a special pet that no vendor sells. Also, some or all people who attend Blizzcon can get a special pet as well, including zerglings.
              • The Zergling pet was a reward for purchasing the Collecor's Edition. Any character made from an account from the CE can have a Zergling non-combat pet.

                The people who attend Blizzcon get a voucher for a Merloc non-combat pet. I haven't heard if you can get a Zergling there though.

    • Re:Alliance race? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Possible candidates are:
      - Draenei. The little misshapen "Lost Ones" you can find in Swamp of Sorrows, displaced from their homeworld of Draenor when it blew up into Outland. Oops. They hate orcs with a passion, making them contenders for a new alliance race.
      - Pandaren. These big bears are actualy creatures in the Warcraft universe, although Pandaren Express may not exist
      - Furbolgs. This is dubious as the only un-corrupted race of furbolgs, the Timbermaw, are wary of outsiders
      • You know I bet Dryads would be a high possibility. A very unique race for the alliance that is totally doable. Yeah they're all about nature but so are the Taurens, it would take nothing to add a bit to the story where Dryads are "called into battle the Horde" or whatever.

    • The rumor was that the alliance race would be the Draenei [wowwiki.com]

      This hasn't been confirmed nor denied in the expansion news

    • Hopefully not murlocks.
    • Knowing bliz's pension for giving alliance the weird crap I could venture to guess goblins.
    • If they're opening up Outworld, it would make sense to have the Draenei. In the Warcraft universe, they are the original inhabitants of Outworld, along with the Orcs. The Orcs killed most of them, but there are some pockets of Draenei on Outworld. Also, there are some in World of Warcraft already, in the Swamp of Sorrows, but they're insane cast-offs of their people, and are just creatures to be killed for XP. It seems like a logical choice for Blizzard to add as a playable race, and because they hate the O
  • Can someone post the article? Can't get to the WoW website from this connection. Thanks

  • Artwork dates back to 2003 (Score:3, Informative)

    by ChaseTec ( 447725 ) <chase@osdev.org> on Friday October 28, 2005 @12:21PM (#13897917) Homepage
    Notice the date on this sketch of a female blood elf [worldofwarcraft.com]. Yeah, I know it could have been part of some back story for the original game but it makes me wonder if things were removed from the original game to provide content for an expansion pack.
    • actually, i used to write "drafts" this way for papers in high school and college. i would generally create the final product, then remove and reorganize ideas until it seems less polished, and turn that in when they asked for a draft...never get the hopes up too high on the first take!

    • There already are Blood Elves in the game, though, they're just not playable. And the vast majority of them are at war with the Horde. (Um...) So it's not like the artwork wasn't used in the original game despite being developed, it's just that it wasn't fully fleshed out into a full race.

      So, with that out of the way, here are my thoughts on the expansion.

      First off, Blood Elves as Horde members. Um. The Horde is now only 3/5ths Horde, and now 2/5ths "other." So, uh, yay Blizzard. Keep that Warcra

      • I can see a way for it to work, assuming that sockets are filled via trade skills (please, please, PLEASE, make trade skills useful in the expansion), but socketed item?

        IIRC, Blizzard also announced a Jewelcrafting trade skill that will most likely be used to enhance socketed items.

        • See, this concept scares me. So, Jewelcrafting is going to create jewels - let's call them enchantments - to place on items that use sockets.

          So, uh, what's the point of enchanting, then?! It's way too easy to see Blizzard set this up in such a way that the two clash.

          I dunno, I really need more details, but from what they've given us, the expansion sounds lame, outside of Outland.

          • Well one would assume that you could have socketed items + enchantents. At least I would hope so. I wonder if you will be able to sell jewels, and can anyone just buy them off the AH and use them - or will a Jewelcrafter set them for you. I think it's kind of a pain that enchanters can't put their enchants on scrolls to sell them. I realize that this is how Blizzard wants it, but boy is it a pain to sell or buy enchants. You either need to sit and hawk your wares or you have to track down on the few people
    • Female Blood Elves are already in the game, there's one in Sun Rock Retreat, Stonetalon Mountains. I forget what quest she gives (but with a 29, 25, and 42, I've seen a lot of it recently). I think she's the kill-nature-spirits up north by the alliance outpost in Stonetalon.
  • I'm a warcrafter from the very beginning the only humanoid race I can think of offhand that isnt evil is the Pandarens. On the horde side there are were ogres and goblins and they didn't go with either of those (to my disappointment). Has anyone read the books? They seem to reference them and those tomes may clue us in to any alliance additions that have gone on.

  • Detailed reviews from IGN and some other mag. (Score:3, Informative)

    by JavaLord ( 680960 ) on Friday October 28, 2005 @01:55PM (#13898704) Journal
    IGN preview [ign.com]

    Pretty interesting stuff, yey for linked AH's. No mention of the paladin revamp in 1.9, sounds like ..they haven't started fixing the class they revamped two weeks before launch yet. The 'scripted world event' in 1.9 sounds cool though.

    PC mag pages:
    Page one [photobucket.com]
    Page two [photobucket.com]
    Page three [photobucket.com]
    Page four [photobucket.com]
    Page five [photobucket.com]

    I'm a bit disapointed, with all this info I see nothing that makes me happy as a pvp player. I'd like to hear about a FFA pvp server type, but I don't think we are getting it.
  • After Bruce Schneier's revelations regarding Blizzard's new "the innocent have nothing to fear from our spyware" policies [schneier.com], I've completely hopped off the World of Warcraft bandwagon. I realize that Blizzard is just trying to help legitimate players avoid the hassles of dealing with cheats and farmers, but I'd rather worry about the cheats in a virtual world than worry that some company is scanning my computer for things it doesn't want me running. Blizzard can take their Burning Legion and cram it up their

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